Thanks to the eagle eyes at the League of American Bicyclists, this General Motors campaign was spotted - and spanked accordingly. "Reality Sucks" is their campaign title. It offers discounts to college students who want to buy a car. This is another example of Copenhagenize's "Car Industry Strikes Back" series. Most instances of the car industry, or automobile insurance companies, are subtle and use imagery to underline their point that cycling is geeky, only for poor souls and can't compete with the sexed up car ownership world. This GM campaign spells it out, revealing the inner desires of the car industry faced with stiff and growing competition from bicycle traffic.

Stop Pedalling, Start Driving.

Yes. They're worried. Yes. They're desperately trying to cling on to a fast-changing market. No. They don't seem very capable of doing so.

As a responsible corporate citizen, General Motors is dedicated to protecting human health, natural resources and the global environment. This dedication reaches further than compliance with the law to encompass the integration of sound environmental practices into our business decisions.

We are committed to actions to restore and preserve the environment. (Meaning: We'll put tiny bandaids on the mass destruction we have caused over the past century in your cities and countryside. Oh, and the Great American Streetcar Scandal? No comment.)
We are committed to reducing waste and pollutants, conserving resources, and recycling materials at every stage of the product lifecycle. (Meaning: Because this will increase our profit margin)
We will continue to participate actively in educating the public regarding environmental conservation (Meaning: we'll do everything we can to manipulate people into staying in our cars and ridicule all other forms of transport).
We will continue to pursue vigorously the development and implementation of technologies for minimizing pollutant emissions. (Meaning: As long as it stills involves oil and we can still keep selling cars)
We will continue to work with all governmental entities for the development of technically sound and financially responsible environmental laws and regulations. (Meaning: We will spend outrageous amounts of money lobbying politicians to keep them on our side)

17 comments:

Even if I bought the cynical premise of this campaign (driving is for WINNERS!), it's just a weak campaign. The slogan, the graphics, everything about it is lame and out of date. Why would the attractive, fit guy on the bike even care what the smirking harpy in the car thinks? It smacks of desperation and almost makes me feel sorry for GM. They're going to need to do better than that to counter the perception of all the younger people I know, that cycling is hot and driving is at best a necessary evil.

The European Automobile Manufacturer’s Association stated that cycling is a luxury activity: "European cities only a few can afford walking and cycling to work or for leisure, the cost of living close to the place or work or leisure being too high” (http://www.ecf.com/4600_1)

I think tha GM has already found out the hard way, that this ad was a big FAIL. Judging by the FB comments (www.facebook.com/gmcollegeprogram), and their response, I guess that sonnner than latter, they will try to come up with some "damage control" to this campaign: "We are very sorry that we have offended you and the bicycling community by our recent campaign. We are listening to everyone's feedback, and making changes to the campaign. Thank you for voicing your concerns and again we apologize."

if this is GM "striking back" then I don't think we have much to fear. Everything about the ad is dated - other than the car model years there is nothing to indicate that this wasn't produced in 1992. There's a lot of survey evidence indicating that cars are losing their status-symbol cachet among younger people, and this totally out-of-touch campaign will do nothing to counter that trend.

To be fair to GM, the EU-only Corsa model comes with the option of a built in 2 bike carrier built in to the rear bumper: pull it out and you've got room for two bikes. This is a complete contrast to the "you need an SUV for outdoor adventures" marketing that is normally presented. If car club vehicles were so equipped, and rental cars, it'd be easier to rent a car for the odd car+bike journey.

That built in bike carrier is a way of embracing bicycles and recognising that people who own small urban cars may want to carry bikes, and don't need a second vehicle to do it (unlike the electric-for-commute, SUV-for-weekends story)

Nah, GM cannot be defended, even with the neat Corsa integrated rack. You must have seen the adverts in the UK whereby the lycra clad, helmeted model on the bike is tempted into the Corsa for a lift rather than carry on up the slight incline she was on.

I agree with your sentiments for getting this onto car club vehicles (and the crazy SUV requirement for outdoor adventures that they market) but this is all marginalising cycles to weekend leisure rides and not as a form of transport.

I'd love to know the market research the GM folks had access to that had them so concerned that they created this sort of campaign. It's not about the love of driving, new features or a passage into adulthood but rather a comparison to a product from a related but distinctly different industry.

To be fair, GM may have given street rail transit the coup de grace in some cities, streetcars were dying in many U.S. cities long before "National City Lines" thanks to non-public ownership, over-regulation by the Utilities regulators (fares couldn't be raised wooden cars had to be retired early), and improvement of parallel roadways, sometimes involving the acquisition of the rail right-of-way for road use instead.

Try to find a copy of a documentary called "This was the Pacific Electric" for a good synopsis:

Kilometres cycled by Copenhageners so far today

Copenhagenize.com is the blog of Copenhagenize Design Company. Online since 2007 and highlighting the cycling life in Copenhagen and around the world.

40 years ago Copenhagen was just as car-clogged as anywhere else but now 41% of the population arriving at work or education do so on bicycles, from all over the Metro area. 55% of Copenhageners themselves use bicycles each day. They all use over 1000 km of bicycle lanes in Greater Copenhagen for their journeys. Copenhagenizing is possible anywhere.